Week 9 - PCB Thermal Simulation

Introduction: The following study is to simulate the PCB and heat affecting the material by analysing the contours of the object. A conduction, convection (forced) and joule heating will be used to get a holistic understanding of the simulation.

Conduction:

-The geometry downloaded is first unpacked, as the first problem is to simulate conduction we only need the PCB so selecting all other parts and unactivating them.

-Thickness of the layers is defined after importing the ECAD files.

-The traces are as follows:

Metal Fraction (100x100 grid)

Trace by single colour:

Layer

Trace

Net

The cabinet is auto-scaled to fit the PCB geometry, the walls provided are given appropriate boundary conditions of temperature and heat flux.

Normal meshing is done and the setup with flow and radiation is disabled.

Results: The temperature and conduction contour are as follows:

Forced Convection: For forced convection the inactive bodies are enabled and the flow of fluid is asigned at max x at -1.5m/s .

The same process is performed except in the setup flow is enabled as this is a convection process.

Results:

Joule-Heating:

In this method we are intresetd to understand the effect of resistance and how it leads to heating and visulaing this would gives us the ability to tunderstand how this might affect other components.

- Model trace heating is enabled and select INT1_3 and give boundary ocndition given in problem statement.

- The process remain same as the previous for generatating mewsh except an Assemly is created for the block and approppriate slack values are given.

Result:

Conclusion:

PCB's are important part of electrical systems as they cally the circuitary of the component. The simulation conducted in this challenge covers all the aspect of the PCB realted challenges i.e conduction of heat inside the PCB, forced convection over the PCB and Heat generated due to the resistance inside the PCB circuitary.

This study gives insight into design of PCB and components around it.